1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to interactive systems, and more particularly to an interactive conversational apparatus which utilizes pre-recorded multi-track media to store interactive conversational content and which employs voice recognition to enable verbal communication between the user and the apparatus to provide more realistic conversational content and to facilitate use of the apparatus as an educational tool or for verbal training.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Systems that perform interactive conversation are well known in the art. These systems have used a variety of different techniques to achieve interactive conversation, although none has been successful in providing full two-way intelligent sounding verbal dialog between the device and the user or in providing verbal training to children or others in need of such training.
For example, commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,947,972 and 4,078,316, the contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose a conversational teaching apparatus which employs a time synchronized multi-track audio tape to store educational conversation messages. This device employs one track to relay interrogatories to a user. The tracks are then used, selectable by a manual switching mechanism, to convey responsive messages.
Commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,313,510 and 5,340,317, the contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference, improved upon the earlier conversational system by programming conversations on a magnetic media in a decision-tree logic which allowed complex conversations to be developed using the multi-track media. The information is stored on each track in a plurality of reproducible information segments which contain interrogatory messages and associated multiple choice responses, responsive messages, informational messages, and combinations thereof. The responsive messages contained on the tracks are related in real-time and content to particular interrogatory messages on the tracks, and correspond with multiple choice selectable responses. The apparatus could exhibit pseudo-memory and multiple simultaneous pseudo-memories; exhibit profiling and substitutability; and categorize and subcategorize users of the apparatus.
Other multiple choice child response systems are exemplified by the systems disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,921,385; 3,020,360; 2,826,828; 3,623,238; 3,546,791; 3,273,260; 3,665,615; 3,245,157; 3,284,923; 3,538,621; 3,477,144; 3,708,891; 3,255,536; 2,777,901; 2,908,767; 3,774,316; 3,194,895; 3,484,950; 3,343,280; and 3,763,577, by way of example.
One weakness of existing systems, especially for children, is that they cannot teach how to talk to the device so that the device can recognize the speech. Also, none of these prior systems utilizes voice recognition in an interactive conversational apparatus so that the apparatus could receive and respond to voice responses to interrogatory messages, informational messages, and combinations thereof generated by the apparatus. Utilization of a voice responsive interface would permit such an apparatus to retain the long-term motivational, entertainment, and educational interests of a child, and would enable the apparatus to be used to teach a child to speak, in general, to speak in such a way as to allow the device to understand human speech at a higher rate of reliability, or to verbally respond to interrogatories or commands. Such an apparatus could also be used to teach adults or children to properly interact with voice responsive systems, greatly increasing the system's user friendliness and usefulness.